Redrow - Useless Garden

Jarmum

'm looking for some advice. My daughter bought a Redrow house in Lanark 5 years ago. We put down turf. in a mater of months we noticed problems with the garden in that water (rain) seemed unable to drain. It was a bad summer so we put it down to that and hoped things would improve the next year. They didn't, we complained to Redrow who after much delay agreed to put in drainage but only up to the 3 metre line. Their engineer came and did the work and said that it would help but wouldn't solve the problem. He didn't exaggerate - now 5 years on the garden is unusable and any time it rains is like marshland. We have been back in touch with Redrow this previous year who say that it is not their responsibility.
NHBC agree with them and the 3 metre line rule. Basically my daughter does not have a garden that can be used for any purpose. Do we have any rights at all?

Running_Horse

I hate plastic turf and decking, but it may solve the problem to make it usable and sellable.

olly300

Gardens don't have to have grass in them or any living plants for that matter, so it will be impossible to force Redrow to sort out the matter legally.

You are going to have to sort this one out yourself but first you need to find out exactly what type of land the house was built on and what was on the land before.

Thrugelmir

Jarmum wrote: »

Do we have any rights at all?

Highly possible that the soil has been compacted down and all sorts of building rubbish has been buried. Dig the whole area over to a depth of 2 spades. Mix in plenty of manure and compost to help break the soil down. Also create some soakaways.

Plant water loving plants as well.

xylophone

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060829141504AAxuVax

[Deleted User]

I moved into a new build some years ago and had exactly the same problem. See if the soil is clay.., we had to dig lots of sand, manure and compost into the soil. It did improve the drainage and eventually we did get grass to grow.

beedeedee

Friends solved a similar problem by digging out a huge pond (almost the size of the garden really) and completely surrounding it with decking that included a small patio. Once filled with fish and tall reeds and plants, the pond looked stunning and became a real selling point later on.

SternMusik

My house has the same problem. It was built 17 years ago (by cowboy builders, it seems...). At the time the builders simply filled the back garden in with compacted rubble and then added a thin layer of topsoil. Combined with the clay soil in this part of the country drainage problems are inevitable. Every time I do a bit of digging in the garden I dig up lots of stones of various sizes. The ground is very compact and very difficult to work with.

Having said that, my garden has a lawn, beautiful established bushes (a camellia amongst them), a tree and two borders with various plants (lavender, azalea, clematis, roses...). Yes, the garden does get very, very wet when it rains but the plants don't seem to mind that much. Digging in organic material does help, and aerating the lawn probably would help (haven't tried it).

My advice would be to get a good landscape gardener in. They will be able to make the most of what you have got.

martinsurrey

turn it from a negative to a positive...

take up a new hobby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bog_snorkelling

You’ll be one of the only competitors with their own private practice ground!

but seriously the only solutions are very expensive if you get contractors in, or back breaking if you do them yourselves, they involve a huge amount of digging, and back filling with suitable materials.

Soot2006

Poor drainage is how we ended up with a pond and "wildlife area" strategically placed so that most of the water in the garden had somewhere to go we've a dug slight incline towards it). We have a deeper true pond and then a wetland surrounding it with tall bog plants - I can now mow right up to the bog plants which is good as prevents people from stepping into the wet!. I've grown really fond of it and it looks great, full of animals and plants and stuff. Hardy grasses covering the rest of the garden soak up leftover water. My lawn does need cutting twice a week during the season. The whole thing has gone from a big bog to a very fertile little garden. Think outside the box!

(or just astroturf the lot)